Usangu Plain
lowland in south-central Tanzania
The Usangu Plain is a lowland in south-central Tanzania. It is named for the Sangu people.
Geography
The Usangu Plain covers an area of 15,500 km2. It extends northeast-southwest, bounded on the south by the Udzungwa Mountains, and the Kipengere Range on the southwest. Between the two ranges the Makambako Gap opens to the south. On the north, The Mbeya Mountains rise steeply to the northwest, and the lower Lupa upland further to the east. Further east the Usangu escarpment becomes less distinct, and the plain transitions into the plateau of central Tanzania.
The plain is drained by the Great Ruaha River and its tributaries.
Geology
The Usangu Plain is the eastern branch of the East African Rift. The Usangu Fault scarp runs along the northern edge of the plain, where the Mbeya Mountains and Lupa upland meet the plain.
The public source identifies “Usangu Plain” as lowland in south-central Tanzania. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Usangu, Plain and lowland.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Usangu Plain”, the useful work is to connect “lowland in south-central Tanzania” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2502350. VIAF identifies the subject as 315136594. Authority coordinates are -8.562, 34.199. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Usangu Plain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.